The Department will recognize 335 Missouri public and charter schools for successfully adopting and implementing Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support (SW-PBS), a comprehensive approach for improving student behavior and academic performance. The Department’s Special Education Division of Effective Practices actively supports the Missouri SW-PBS initiative.

Missouri students can keep their reading skills sharp over the summer months by joining the “Read MOre, Missouri!” reading challenge.  

“Kids who read during the summer are much less likely to lose the skills they gained during the school year,” says Commissioner of Education Chris Nicastro. “Read MOre, Missouri!” can instill the joy of reading in our children and help reach the goals of Missouri’s Top 10 by 20 initiative.”

More than 300 schools in 91 districts participate in Project Lead the Way

Missouri schools are offering students more opportunities for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.

Letter says action violates terms for local board to remain

Based upon media reports on May 21, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has notified the Normandy School District that expenses related to a lawsuit against the State Board of Education and area school districts would not be approved.

State Board committed to schools in Normandy

The State Board voted today to lapse the unaccredited Normandy School District and replace it with a new local education agency and new governing board. The move keeps local schools operating in the district’s footprint under new leadership. The Department recommended the move based on significant community input and on a report from the Normandy Transition Task Force, which was established in March 2014 to develop a plan for the future of the district.

Normandy Transition Task Force Delivers Report for School District

The Commissioner of Education, Chris Nicastro, will introduce the Normandy Transition Task Force to the State Board of Education at its Tuesday, May 20 meeting in Columbia, MO, to review their report. The Task Force was established in March 2014 to develop a specific plan for the operation of schools in the Normandy School District should the district lapse.

Grants for after-school programs are now open for bid.

Before- and after-school programs provide students with academic enrichment opportunities and activities designed to complement their regular academic program during non-school hours by providing a range of high-quality services to support student learning and development. These services include tutoring and mentoring, homework help, academic enrichment (such as hands-on math, reading, language arts and science programs), community service opportunities, as well as music, arts, sports and cultural activities.

Three Missouri high school seniors are among only 141 in the country being honored by the White House Commission as Presidential Scholars for their academic achievement:

A team of students from Mark Twain High School in Center took third place in the Management Division at the National Educational Foundation’s National ProStart Invitational that took place May 3-5 in Minneapolis, Minn.

The group, which also won first place at the state competition, has been selected as a recipient of grants from Golden Corral and the Burger King McLamore Foundation.

Katherine Park, a nurse at Oak Brook Elementary School in the Parkway School District, was recently named an Outstanding Policy Leader by Healthy Schools Campaign.

Park has been a leader in working with the treatment and care of diabetes. She created a diabetes training toolkit that is being adopted in districts throughout the state to care for students with diabetes. She leads Parkway’s diabetes training program and has helped develop statewide diabetes personal training standards.